What's After Life?
by htbookreader1
Summary: What does Robin see when he opens his eyes for the last time? Will he remember those who left him? Can he go back to those who he left? Will he ever find the one he loves most? Please r&r request from Brittany468!


**Hey y'all been a while since anything RH has come but here it is. This is a request for Brittany! whoa! love you girl! This is a sign for more RH stuff to come i think...please read, review enjoy**

**Disclaimer: don't own Robin Hood...poo, sniff, sigh, anguish, tear**

**What's After Life?**

Blue eyes open slowly. Waking up again, for the last time, and forever. The once great hero of men, opens his eyes to a cloudless sky, and blinks. He first feels warm, warmth and peace such as he has not experienced in a long time, a very long time. He notes too that his pain, the fatal poison coursing through his body, is now gone.

He thinks that perhaps his men found him wandering through the forest and treated him. Perhaps Tuck is a better surgeon than he believed. The leader sits up with ease and realizes that he is lying in a forest. And this reaffirms his belief that he is alive, he must be alive, surely.

And surely, he knows with watery eyes, she was just a dream. She must have been a fragmentation of his sickly condition and not a real angel. This, he thinks, this forest is not Paradise, but Sherwood Forest. And any minute now, he believes, any minute now he will see Much's beaming face. He will hear John's throaty laugh echoing throughout the forest. His gang will be here soon, ever so soon, to give comfort to their revived friend.

He looks around the forest with bright eyes. This must be a different part of the forest, somewhere he has never explored before. How odd, he reasons to himself, for he believed he knew every inch of the Greenwood like the back of his hand.

A rustling of leaves and footsteps.

He turns to the source of the noise and puts his hand to his side, searching for his sword. But he finds only an empty hilt. He rises to his feet in a defensive stance as the footsteps grow louder and louder.

Brown eyes, also shining brightly, meet his own from across the forest.

His heartbeat quickens, and fear courses through his body as he recognizes the face smiling at him.

"Gisborne?"

The man once called Guy of Gisborne steps out of the shadows and smiles at the hero. He does not wear black leather, but instead a simple white tunic. And his face seems different too. His face does not seem so pained as it once had. The wrinkles of shame, of bloodlust, of revenge, are faded. How can that be?

"So you have arrived," Gisborne says to him.

"Arrived?" he repeats uncertainly.

Guy nods.

"Aren't you…?" He does not wish to finish his sentence. A lump is beginning to form in his throat.

Gisborne chuckles. "Dead?"

No answer.

"You saw me fall," continues Gisborne. "Surely you, you of all people, would know whether or not I died."

His mouth hangs open. The lump is growing steadily in his throat. He hopes that this is all a very bad dream, one that he will surely awaken from at any moment.

Suddenly a figure appears by Gisborne's side. She is a woman that he only slightly recognizes. He remembers vaguely that this girl, with her curly brown hair and pretty brown eyes, was sentenced to death along with Gisborne. But he does not know her name.

"This is Meg," says Gisborne softly, putting a loving arm around the girl named Meg.

"And she too is…?" He does not have the will to finish the thought. He is breathing heavily and wonders if it is possible for his heart to beat any faster.

"At peace," says the girl named Meg. She leans her head against Guy's shoulder and sighs deeply. She is wearing a white dress and interlocks her fingers with Guy's.

"No," he whispers, looking at Meg and Guy standing before him. "It cannot be," he continues with desperation and bitterness. Though he feels no pain, yet there is a lump in his throat. Yet there is a tug at his heart. Yet there are tears beginning to fill his eyes so he cannot see.

"I'm sorry," says a third figure stepping into the clearing of the forest.

"Roy!" he gasps breathlessly.

Roy smiles at his old leader. "I have missed you Lavender boy."

"This is not possible," he tells the three figures dressed in white, and basked in brilliant light.

"Why not?" asks Roy.

"Because," he begins, "because this is all a dream. None of you are here; none of you are standing before me!"

Suddenly the forest fills with laughter. A familiar laughter that he knows well. A laugh he believed he would never hear again ring in his ears.

"Did you miss me?" asks the newcomer, who stands by Roy.

He beams at his fallen brother. "ALLAN!"

Allan smiles. "It is good to see you my friend. And yet," he stops speaking and slowly approaches his brother in arms. "And yet I wish I did not see you too. Welcome home brother."

He touches Allan's face. "You are so real."

Allan nods. "As real as you are."

He notices that Allan too, is dressed in a white tunic, and that the sun, in her radiance seems to shine brilliantly on his brother.

Allan cannot stop smiling. "How is Much? How are John, and Tuck? What of Kate?"

"When I awaken," he says slowly to Allan, "I shall tell them you say hello."

The boyish smile fades from Allan's face. "You still do not believe me? After all that you have seen, all the pain you have held onto and has now faded, after all this…and you do not believe?"

"I am not finished yet!" he bellows loudly. "I have not finished what I must do! I will not rest until all is done, until England is free!"

"And what about you?" asks a hidden voice.

He jumps and pulls away from Allan, looking desperately for the voice in the forest. "What about me?"

"You say you will not rest until England is free," says the voice that seems to echo around the entire forest. "What of your freedom?"

"My freedom?" he repeats. It has been a long time since he took care of his own freedom and needs.

"Yes," says the voice.

"It is gone," he replies. "It has faded away with the desert sands."

"Gone?" repeats the voice. "Faded?"

"Yes," he says simply. "I do not think of myself and my own needs."

"You have brought down evil," says the voice, "you have brought sunshine back into the hearts of your countrymen, and you have…" The voice stops speaking.

He continues following the source of the voice until he approaches a cluster of bushes. He stands in front of them. "I have what?"

"Saved everyone here."

He looks behind him at the faces of his friends and allies. He then looks back at the cluster of bushes.

"And yourself too?" he asks.

"And myself too," answers the voice.

"What of those I leave behind?" he asks stepping into the thicket of bushes. "What of them?"

"You must do what I have done," says the voice quietly.

He risks a smile and approaches. "What?"

"Wait."

He pulls aside a branch and sees a woman standing in front of him. She too wears white, and she too, seems to bask in the radiance of the sunshine. Her eyes are only meant to look into his own. Her hands reach for his own tenderly. Her fingers touch his face gently, and her lips touch his own gently.

"I have waited for you so long, my love," she says.

"Marian," he whispers into her lustrous brown hair. "My Marian."

"Robin," she breathes into his ear.

And she speaks his name. A sound in his ears such as he has not heard for what feels like a five lifetimes. She gives him life again, she brings him into peace in a way no one else can. She gives him hope for an eternal peace and everlasting happiness.

Robin Hood, such as he was, cannot exist again. He is dead to those who walk the earth day and night. He has been buried six feet under the earth and shall not rise again. He is just a name now, a name meant for stories and songs that shall be carried and shared forever. And he can do no more now, than to give the world his name.

"I miss them," he says looking into her eyes and seeing Much, John, Will, and Djaq.

Marian nods. "I know you do."

"Does it feel long?" he asks her as gently as a breeze.

"To wait?"

He nods.

"It can," she says truthfully. "And you know that you can never return."

He nods again.

Marian smiles at him. "But you can watch." She extends her hand to the forest in front of them and he sees a man standing by a grave. His face is torn in grief and sadness.

"Much," Robin whispers, trying to reach out to his dear friend.

Marian leans her head on Robin's shoulder. "He must grieve. They all must grieve. Just as you did for me."

Suddenly Much stands up and looks up at the sky. "ROBIN!"

The scream startles the birds and beasts of the forest. It startles every leaf and branch. And it gives pause to the wind, for the wind too hears the calls of the broken hearted.

Tears fill the hero's eyes.

Marian sighs. "Okay, maybe just once. You get to have just one last visit to the real world."

Robin smiles and kisses her cheek. "I'll be back Marian."

He feels a hand touch his. He turns and goes back into her arms for one more minute. Though he knows the truth now, and has accepted it all, he still does not believe that he can hold her in his arms.

And then he releases her and walks off into the distance.

Marian looks on and watches how Much's eyes light up with joy upon seeing his fallen friend. And, for a minute his eyes shine as brightly as those who watch him up above. For a minute the sun's brilliance seems to shine on Much just as it does those basked in eternal happiness. Just as those who find true peace and comfort.

Marian looks on and smiles.

"You let him go back?" asks a voice behind her.

Allan joins her as they both watch the two brothers share their joy.

"Why did you never go back?" asks Allan.

"He would never have let me go," she says simply. "And I would never have let him."

"Do you miss life?" Allan asks.

Marian shakes her head. Her eyes are locked on Robin. "No. This is my…_life_ now. He is."

"I hate knowing though," says Allan. "Knowing how it will end for those close to you."

Marian nods. "You cannot tell him. You cannot tell him what will happen to those who he left behind. He would try anything to stop their ends."

Allan nod silently.

Marian sees suddenly how Robin's eyes are on her, gesturing that she should come too. Join them. She shakes her head and smiles. Robin shrugs and continues talking to Much.

"Let him have this moment," she says. "This moment."

**AWWWW...so what do you think? more? finished? and of course,,, thoughts?**


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